TokyoFlash Keisan Review

Have you ever looked at your wrist and said “You know what? I’d really like to do some arithmetic right now!” If that’s you, then the ToykoFlash Keisanis right up your alley. And if it isn’t you, well, just think of it as a sort of quick brain training exercise whenever you want to check the time.

When the Keisan is off, this is something that you could look at and almost think that it’s just some stylized piece of jewelry, or perhaps part of some Sci-Fi outfit. This is largely due to the muted glow you get off of the aluminum case and strap (which help contribute to the low 80g weight!). While it’s 45mm tall (from lug to lug), it’s only 30mm wide, and a surprising 12mm thin.

Design is only part of the game with TokyoFlash, though, as readers of this blog well know. Their real claim to fame is the new and inventive ways that they’ve come up with to display the time. While other models have relied on arrangements of shapes and lights (to varying degrees of readability at first). For those who found those abstract methods a bit too wild, you’ll be comforted to know that this display relies on numbers.

Not just any numbers, though. When you depress the button over on the right-hand side of the case, the display lights up, with each bubbled column representing a digit in the time (or date, which immediately follows). What you’ll have to do is add up each column to arrive at what the digit is representing. For example, in the shot above, it’s showing a time of 20:42 (aka 8:42 pm). At first it seems a touch daunting, but focusing on one column at a time, and you’ll have a quick read.

So, once you’ve got your time, you move on and the watch sleeps for the next activity, right? Actually, no. They’ve programmed this watch to do a sort of sweeping animation once every minute, for 12 minutes, after you’ve gotten the time. While this isn’t anything functional, it goes hand-in-hand with ToykoFlash’s overall language, which places these sorts of animations in most of their watches. Really, it’s just something fun to watch, especially in a darkened room.

In regular wear, as you can imagine, this watch all but disappears on your wrist, with the aluminum construction. While this isn’t one of their best bracelets (the individual links are on the larger side, and not as smoothly articulated), I was able to get a reasonable fit to my wrist. Again, with a light watch like this, having an absolute perfect fit isn’t as critical, as the watch won’t move around as much. When it came to reading the time, I was able to pick this up pretty quickly and figure out what was going on. Perhaps not “as a glance” as a regular analog or digital, but still not as tricky as some other models in their lineup. At a price of $99, this is one of the more affordable models in their lineup (not that prices go that high, but still), and I’d say it’s a good way to make you think about time. tokyoflash.com

Review Summary

Brand & Model: TokyoFlash Keisan

Price: $99 (yellow or red LEDs)

Who’s it for?: Someone who’s a fan of TF’s quirky designs, but doesn’t want one of the more abstract time-telling methods

Would I wear it?: While I think these are fun and intriguing watches, this particular design isn’t to my personal tastes.

The best thing about it: How lightweight the piece is

What I’d change: A more refined bracelet, perhaps with some half-links